Nasal Congestion

I just finished night 3 of my CPAP and these boards are helpful. I am using Nasal Pillows ResMed I believe. The fist night I felt my nose was too dry so the last two nights I increased my humidity setting to 4. I didn't notice a difference yesterday morning, but this morning I woke up extremely congested, so I am assuming that I need to lower my humidity setting?

Also I am struggling with how tight to have the mask. Are you supposed to hear or feel any air (even just a little) escaping from the seal? At the slightest noise of what I think is a leak I get paranoid and tighten the mask.

Thanks!

For me, the heat needed to create the extra humidity causes my nose to plug-up. My machine is very basic and it does not have a way to control the heat and humidity separately (this is apparently not true of better machines), so I turn my humidity control off for the summer months. BTW - - You need to complete your profile (equipment types) so the excellent writers on this board (not me) can offer better advice.

I use a nose pillow mask and it does not leak. It is nearly silent, so much so that I have to briefly open my mouth to even tell that I am "pressurized." There is exhaust air that comes out of all masks, which may be what you are feeling. Nose pillow masks do not need to be extremely tight, but I keep mine tighter than probably needed because I want to be sure, and it does not bother me at all.

Humidity needs vary between patients.
Some get congestion when not using enough added moisture and some get congestion when using too much.
It's just something you have to sort through to figure out what makes your nasal mucosa happy.
If were using a lower setting but that was too dry feeling and increased to 4 and had some congestion you might try an in between setting or maybe just reduce the setting to 3 and see what happens.

Not sure what you mean about leaks around the seal. At the nostril contact point there shouldn't be any leaking but right near the nostril contact point is where the vent holes are and it's normal to feel air coming from the vent holes.

You can you are using a ResMed nasal pillows mask and you mention adjusting to make it tighter...is it the Swift FX nasal pillow? Tighter isn't always better because the pillows need to inflate to seal and if the straps are too tight the pillows get sort of squished and can't inflate.

Which machine are you using? Hopefully it is a full data machine so that you can use the available software to monitor those leaks if they are indeed coming from the nostril contact point.